Ghaziabad: Facing allegations of financial
misconduct, activist Arvind Kejriwal broke his silence on Tuesday daring the government to conduct a probe against him and other
Team Anna members even as he questioned the motive behind the
"smear campaign".
Defending himself and Kiran Bedi, who is under attack for
inflating her travel bills, Kejriwal said, "If someone paid
the ticket examiner in Railway because he needed a ticket, so
that person cannot question Suresh Kalmadi? Is this the
message being given out?”
"Do you mean to say that out of 120 crore people, only
saints can question UPA`s corruption and government will keep
on robbing people? If anybody questions then that person will
be asked to look into his case first," he said and warned that
if the current smear campaign continues, the next movement
will be 10 times bigger.
Kejriwal, who was accused by Swami Agnivesh of depositing
donations for Hazare agitation in a trust run by him, said if
they have committed mistakes, then the government was free to
probe and punish them by taking the strongest possible action.
"Don’t forgive us. Give us twice the punishment given to
common people. But bring Lokpal and you will have to," he
said.
He lamented that the whole attention is being shifted
from corruption movement and Lokpal to Core Committee which has
"no importance".
"Whether Kiran Bedi paid bills or not has become national
issue. It will not benefit nation. It will be useful when
Lokpal will come. Government should understand that their ways
and methods are increasing the anger among people," he said.
"If these smear campaign continues, then the people of
this country are watching and the next movement will be 10
times bigger," he said.
"If Kiran Bedi has committed a crime, hang her. Send her
to jail but talk about Lokpal Bill. Whatever mistake she has
done, investigate and punish her but we cannot decide it in a
press conference whether the allegations are true or false,"
he said.
PTI
